Brothel owners say police sex unit shooting blanks

By Maris Beck

March 3, 2013 — 3.00am

THE new sex industry police unit - created by the Baillieu government one year ago in a bid to crack down on crime in the sex industry - is hamstrung by lack of resources and has not charged any illegal brothel operators since its inception.

The unit has managed to shut down one illegal parlour but is not directly policing them - instead focusing its enforcement and monitoring activities on licensed brothels.

Frustrated licensees of legal brothels have resorted to vigilante action, sending spies into illegal parlours. They have given police statutory declarations swearing they received sexual services at five illegal brothels around Melbourne - all of them close to police or politicians' offices, including Premier Ted Baillieu's office in Camberwell.

Police are also understood to have been provided last year with a further list of 62 premises suspected of providing illegal sex - all of which are believed to be still operating.

Consumer Affairs Minister Michael O'Brien removed responsibility for policing sex work crimes from his portfolio with laws introduced in 2011, creating the Sex Industry Coordination Unit (SICU) to lead enforcement.

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He said at the time the changes heralded an increased commitment and would ''remove barriers to Victoria Police taking action against illegal brothel operators and properly balance the responsibilities of law enforcement agencies and licensing authorities''.

Consumer Affairs kept a role in regulating licensed brothels.

The changes followed a series of reports on lax enforcement against criminal elements in Melbourne's legal and illegal brothels, allegations of trafficking in legal brothels and the case of a Yarra council worker who admitted accepting bribes from illegal parlours across the city.

Australian Adult Entertainment Industry spokesman William Albon said a five-person police unit was one-third the size that police had originally planned and was clearly insufficient to tackle what he estimated were more than 250 illegal brothels in Victoria. There are about 100 licensed brothels.

''We had hopes that finally a fist was going to be thrown at the illegal brothels. It is up to the government, who said we could all have great expectation of SICU and their fight against illegal brothels, to provide those additional resources.

''I can see no evidence of them having committed additional resources.''

When the creation of SICU as the lead agency in charge of enforcement was announced last year, Victoria Police Superintendent Pauline Kostiuk told Fairfax Media that enforcement against brothels ''wouldn't be given the priority if left to local CIUs [crime investigation units].''

But that is exactly what has happened, with SICU taking a role in intelligence sharing but leaving enforcement against illegal premises to local authorities. The unit, instead, has taken a more direct enforcement role against licensed brothels, where it is understood it has found several suspected instances of trafficking.

So far, the squad has formally interviewed nine people about offences including employing a child as a sex worker, drug possession, dealing in proceeds of crime, employing workers in breach of visa conditions and illegal prostitution.

But most of those people - six of the nine - were from licensed premises. No charges have been laid over illegal brothels and only two charges have been laid in relation to alleged offences at legal brothels.

SICU co-ordinated an investigation against the licensee of the Moorabbin brothel Club Keys Studio, Lynette Elizabeth Farrar, and her manager, who were charged with offences relating to having an under-age girl working at the brothel. The case is still before the courts.

The situation appears to have changed little since Consumer Affairs had the lead role in sex industry enforcement, despite the government's claims last year that there was increased commitment to tackling criminality in the sex industry.

SICU still does not have an estimate on how many illegal brothels are operating across the state. Senior Sergeant Marilynn Ross of SICU, which turned one year old this week, told Fairfax Media: ''How long is a piece of string? It's so transient. It's there one day and gone the next. It's the online advertising that makes it difficult to police.''

She said harm minimisation was the priority in a resource-strapped environment. ''Everything has to be prioritised, that is the issue that we have.'' She said the protection of vulnerable sex workers such as minors or suspected trafficking victims would be the priority ''every time''.

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She said the new regime was ''going to be something that just takes time for everyone to work out. Definitely it's the right way to go.''